”la Caixa” Foundation presents over 20 exhibitions previously unseen in Spain

The legendary Bauhaus parties; the paintings that Turner dedicated to Venice; the splendour of the Thracian people; August Rodin and the influence he exerted over Brancusi, Matisse, Giacometti and many others; Bill Viola's "passions"; the twenty years of ”la Caixa” Foundation's Contemporary Art Collection; Rineke Dijkstra's video installations; Chinese shadows and puppets; modernist jewellery in Europe; French painting from the 19th and 20th centuries; Pre-Raphaelite painters; the Japanese photographer Shoji Ueda, and the FotoPress'05 Prizes. These are just some of the exhibitions that, courtesy of ”la Caixa” Foundation, may be seen for the very first time in Spain. On the occasion of the new Exhibition Season 2004-2005, from September 2004 to August 2005, the Foundation will present more than thirty exhibitions (some twenty of which have hitherto never been seen in Spain) in CaixaForum Barcelona, the exhibition halls in Madrid and Girona, the cultural centres in Tarragona, Lleida and Palma, as well as in the Sala Montcada. Further information on the new Exhibition Season of ”la Caixa” Foundation is available on the Internet (www.fundacion.lacaixa.es). Archaeological exhibitions, contemporary art, the great masters of painting, photography and visual arts, young creators… ”la Caixa” Foundation's exhibition programme encompasses a wide range of different styles and periods: from the Bauhaus's renowned parties to Bill Viola's video installations; from the splendour of the Thracians to Pre-Raphaelite painters; from Turner and Venice to ”la Caixa” Foundation's Contemporary Art Collection. These are but a few of the previously unseen exhibitions that are being presented for the first time in Spain, through the endeavours of ”la Caixa” Foundation.CAIXAFORUM BARCELONA With the exception of the exhibition dedicated to the Chinese photographer Li Zhensheng which was presented in April at ”la Caixa” Foundation's Social and Cultural Centre in Tarragona, none of the exhibitions to be held in CaixaForum between September 2004 and August 2005 have ever been seen before in Spain.- Giuseppe Penone. Retrospective (from October 2004 to January 2005). Giuseppe Penone (Garessio, Italy, 1947) is one of the most important artists on the international scene. This exhibition gathers together some 80 works reflecting all of his different periods, from his first works with photographs and slides to his most recent production of murals made from acacia thorns. - Auguste Rodin (from October 2004 to February 2005). The aim of this exhibition is to show the evolution of the French sculptor Auguste Rodin (1840-1917) and the influence he exercised over other artists such as Camille Claudel, Aristide Maillol, Brancusi, Matisse and Giacometti, among others. The event gathers together some 110 works by 27 leading sculptors of the 19th and 20th centuries. - Open Spaces: Botto & Bruno (from November 2004 to February 2005). Botto & Bruno is the artistic name used by Gianfranco Botto and Roberta Bruno, two Italian artists who photographed the outskirts of large cities, developing their projects in the form of interventions in public spaces. This project is presented in the framework of Open Spaces, a series of interventions by contemporary artists organized by CaixaForum. - Li Zhensheng. A Chinese photographer in the Cultural Revolution (from December 2004 to February 2005). The exhibition shows 150 "unauthorized" photographs taken by a "red-colour news soldier" in the times of the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution (1966-1976). The public trials, humiliating recantations, brutal beatings, multitudinous assemblies, the cult of personality and mass executions are reflected in these images, which reconstruct ten years of social, economic and political cataclysm that caused hundreds of thousands of deaths in Mao Tse-tung's China. - 20 Years of Collecting: a future vision (from February to May 2005). In celebration of its twentieth anniversary, ”la Caixa” Foundation presents a new exhibition of a collection whose unique feature is to bring together a selection of works which have not yet been exhibited publicly, such as the Rayzor installation by James Turrell and a host of significant recent acquisitions. - Turner and Venice (from March to June 2005). This is the first exhibition to date to show the relationship between Turner and Venice, offering over a hundred works proceeding from the Tate Britain collections. Though this is the only opportunity to see the exhibition in Spain, it has been presented previously in the Tate Britain (London), the Kimbell Art Museum (Fort Worth) and the Correr Museum (Venice). - Thrace, Treasures from another World (from April to July 2005). The Thracians, an Indo-European people of obscure origin who inhabited the geographical area occupied today by Rumania, Bulgaria and northern Greece, remained anchored in oblivion for centuries. However, in recent decades a number of magnificent royal tombs have been discovered, decorated with marvellous paintings and abounding in surprising treasures which have astounded specialists. The most significant pieces of these discoveries will be on display in this hitherto unseen exhibition. - Rineke Dijkstra (from June to August 2005). The Dutch photographer and video artist Rineke Dijkstra (Sittard, 1959) is one of the creators of the sixties generation with greatest international recognition and success. This exhibition will present 70 works belonging to the photographic series "Beach Portraits", "Bull Fighters", "Disco Girls", "Almerissa (Asylum Centre)", "Tiergarten", "Israeli Friends" and "Israeli Soldiers". The video installations The Buzzclub and Mystery World will also be screened. This will be the only opportunity for people in Spain to see the exhibition, inaugurated in the Galerie du Jeu de Paume (Paris) and due to close in the Stedelijk Museum (Amsterdam).- The Bauhaus Has Fun. Parties and everyday life (from June to September 2005). Though numerous exhibitions and countless publications have been produced about the Bauhaus, there are still aspects which have never been the subject of any book or show. One such unpublished area is that of the Bauhaus parties and day-to-day life. This is precisely the aim of this exhibition, which gathers together some 150 photographs and a selection of graphic works on paper proceeding from the Bauhaus-Archiv in Berlin. The authors will include such prestigious names as Paul Klee, Vassili Kandinsky, Irene Bayer, Werner Zimmermann, Lucia Moholy-Nagy, Gertrud Arndt and Wolfgang Tümpel, among others. MADRID EXHIBITION HALL ”la Caixa” Foundation Exhibition Hall in Madrid will host three exhibitions never before presented in Spain. The exhibition dedicated to Shoji Ueda may subsequently be seen in Palma.- Pre-Raphaelites: the vision of nature (from September 2004 to January 2005). This exhibition sets out to demonstrate the approach by Pre-Raphaelite painters to landscape painting and how, through their reading of nature, they came to establish some of the standards which would legitimate the evolution of modern art. It consists of 150 works proceeding from some of the foremost British art galleries, such as the Tate Britain, the British Museum, the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Liverpool National Museum and Manchester Art Gallery.- Bill Viola: The Passions (from February to May 2005). Bill Viola (New York, 1951) is one the world's most outstanding creators of video installations. In The Passions he focuses attention on the representation of emotions. In preparing the exhibition, which has previously been presented in the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles and the National Gallery in London, Viola made a special study of late medieval painting, specifically of 15th and 16th century painters' capability of reflecting emotions in religious works of art. - Shoji Ueda (from May to July 2005). ”la Caixa” Foundation presents the first significant retrospective dedicated to the photographer Shoji Ueda (1913-2000) to be organized outside Japan, his country of birth. Ueda is considered one of the most outstanding photographers in the history of Japanese photography. The exhibition, mounted in conjunction with the Musée de l'Elysée in Lausanne, presents over 150 original photographs, all of them black and white.”LA CAIXA” FOUNDATION'S SALA MONTCADA GALLERY - Nothing / something is happening is the title of the new series of exhibitions to be offered at ”la Caixa” Foundation's Sala Montcada gallery. The series, consisting of five exhibitions (conceived exclusively for the Sala Montcada) which will be presented between October 2004 and July 2005, was the idea of two curators: Martí Manen (Barcelona, 1976) and Fabienne Fulchéri (Cannes, 1970). One of the aims of Nothing / something is happening is to create a platform for exchange and mutual recognition between artists, critics and curators at both national and international levels.GIRONA EXHIBITION HALL ”la Caixa” Foundation Exhibition Hall in Girona will host the first showing in Spain of an exhibition dedicated to the engravings, illustrated books and sculptures of Max Ernst. This exhibition may only be seen in Girona. - Memory and Oblivion. Josep Alemany (from September to November 2004). ”la Caixa” Foundation has rescued Josep Alemany Borí (Blanes,1895 - Provincetown, USA, 1951) from oblivion with this first retrospective dedicated to his life and work. Through more than two hundred photographs, the exhibition explores the life and artistic and intellectual evolution of this man, who applied avant-garde precepts in his experiments with photography, - Journey to the World of Shadows (from November 2004 to January 2005). The exhibition gathers together a number of ancient shadow puppets of extraordinary value which make up part of the Kwok On Collection of Asian popular art (one of the most important collections in the world), donated to the Portuguese institution by the French sinologist Jacques Pimpaneau. The show sets out to reveal the beauty and spectacular nature of this collection of figures of mythical heroes, gods, animals and monsters used in the theatrical performances of the shadow theatres of six Asian countries: Turkey, India, China, Cambodia, Thailand and Indonesia. - Max Ernst. Invisible at first sight... Engravings, illustrated books and sculptures (from February to May 2005). Using some 150 works (engravings, illustrated books and sculptures), the exhibition recreates the polyphonic dialogue that the artist invented to refer to the word and the image, that is, to the relationships between art, literature and philosophical theories. The works belong to the Kunstmuseum in Bonn, the city in which the artist studied History of Art between 1910 and 1914. - Media Landscapes (from June to July 2005). There is a steadily increasing number of artists who employ codes used by the communications media to deconstruct their mechanisms and offer new meanings of reality. This exhibition presents a selection of video installations, photographs, drawings and representative installations by Pierre Bismuth, Claude Closky, Minerva Cuevas, Daniel García Andújar, Swetlana Heger, Christian Jankowski, Stefanie Klingemann, Matthieu Laurette, Zbigniew Libera, Bjørn Melhus, Joan Morey, Ester Partegàs and Barbara Visser. ”LA CAIXA” FOUNDATION SOCIAL AND CULTURAL CENTRE IN LLEIDA ”la Caixa” Foundation's Exhibition Hall in Lleida will hold two exhibitions never before seen in Spain. One of these, Media Landscapes will subsequently be presented in Girona and Tarragona, while the other, Heroes and Gods. The theatre of shadows and puppets in China, may only be seen in Lleida. - Media Landscapes (from September 2004 to January 2005): There is a steadily increasing number of artists who employ codes used by the communications media to deconstruct their mechanisms and offer new meanings of reality. This exhibition presents a selection of video installations, photographs, drawings and representative installations by Pierre Bismuth, Claude Closky, Minerva Cuevas, Daniel García Andújar, Swetlana Heger, Christian Jankowski, Stefanie Klingemann, Matthieu Laurette, Zbigniew Libera, Bjørn Melhus, Joan Morey, Ester Partegàs and Barbara Visser. - The Fantastic Garden. Modernist jewellery in European collections (from January to April 2005). The exhibition aims to bring modernist jewellery to the visitor in the most innovative way: instead of isolating the jewellery in sections devoted to each author as has been the practice on numerous occasions, the works are grouped together in thematic areas, those inspired by vegetation for example. The display consists of 69 pieces of jewellery created by the leading jewellers in European modernism: René Lalique, Georges Fouquet, Léopold Gautrait, Lucien Gaillard, Henri Vever, Lluís Masriera Rosés, Paco Durrio, Manolo Hugué, Philippe Wolfers and Wilhelm L. von Cranach. The works belong to both public and private collections from all over Europe: France, Belgium, Germany, Austria and Spain, among other countries. - Heroes and Gods. The theatre of shadows and puppets in China (from April to July 2005). This exhibition is presented in the framework of the 16th edition of the International Puppet Theatre Fair of Lleida which, from 28 April to 1 May 2005 will bring together some 30 companies from all over the world. The centrepiece will be the theatre of shadows and puppets in China, a unique opportunity to discover this type of show, as never before have so many original Chinese pieces been gathered together in the West. The exhibition is complementary to Journey to the world of shadows (a recreation of the theatres of shadows in Turkey, India, China, Indonesia, Cambodia and Thailand), which may be seen in Girona this season. ”LA CAIXA” FOUNDATION CULTURAL AND SOCIAL CENTRE IN TARRAGONA ”la Caixa” Foundation Exhibition Hall in Tarragona will present the prize-winning works and projects awarded grants in the Spanish press photography event FotoPres'05. The exhibition will subsequently travel to different cities in Spain. - Africa, the Imagined Figure (from September to November 2004). Creatures with enigmatic shapes and occasionally weird proportions in the eyes of Westerners, to the diverse races of the African continent their sculptures represent ancestors, spirits, mythical characters and other sacred beings. This exhibition sets out to imbibe the Western public with the passion for African art which, in their day, was felt by Derain, Picasso, Modigliani and many others, through the 166 religious artefacts proceeding from a variety of ethnical origins in Central and Western Africa which portray different representations of one single theme: the human figure. - Escher. The life of shapes (from November 2004 to February 2005). This exhibition offers 78 engravings, lithographs and pieces of xylography by Maurits Cornelis Escher. The works, which proceed from the Israel Museum of Jerusalem, include some of his most well known pieces: Drawing Hands, Belvedere, House of Stairs and Ascending and Descending. The exhibition is organized into four sections: nature, bodies, spaces and geometries. - Media Landscapes (from March to May 2005). There is a steadily increasing number of artists who employ codes used by the communications media to deconstruct their mechanisms and offer new meanings of reality. This exhibition presents a selection of video installations, photographs, drawings and representative installations by Pierre Bismuth, Claude Closky, Minerva Cuevas, Daniel García Andújar, Swetlana Heger, Christian Jankowski, Stefanie Klingemann, Matthieu Laurette, Zbigniew Libera, Bjørn Melhus, Joan Morey, Ester Partegàs and Barbara Visser. - FotoPres'05 (from June to August 2005). In 1982, ”la Caixa” Foundation established FotoPres with the aim of highlighting every two years the best works carried out in the field of Spanish graphic journalism, thus contributing to the consolidation of contemporary photojournalism in Spain. FotoPres'05 will bring together the prize-winning works and the projects awarded grants in the current edition. ”LA CAIXA” FOUNDATION SOCIAL AND CULTURAL CENTRE IN PALMA ”la Caixa” Foundation's Exhibition Hall in Palma will present two exhibitions hitherto unseen in Spain: one on modernist jewellery, which will subsequently travel to Lleida, and another of French painting from the 19th and 20th centuries, which will only be shown in Palma. - Documentary "Fictions" (from September 2004 to January 2005). Under the title, Documentary "Fictions", ”la Caixa” Foundation presents a continuous showing of a series of installations and multi-screenings of 22 films and videos by 21 international creators. The filmmakers and artists represented explore the inherent contradictions in documentary practice to expose invisible, unknown or simply omitted fragments of reality. The creators in question are Sobhi Al-Zobaidi, Keren Amiran, Kutlug Ataman, Javier Codesal, Jordi Colomer, Tacita Dean, Harun Farocki, Peter Friedl, Valérie Jouve, Victor Kossakovsky, Florence Lazar, Avi Mograbi, Noëlle Pujol, Walid Raad, Santiago Reyes, Jean-Claude Rousseau, Allan Sekula, Zineb Sedira, Alexandra Sell, Jia Zhang Ke and Jun Yang.- The Fantastic Garden. Modernist jewellery in European collections (from October 2004 to January 2005). The exhibition aims to bring modernist jewellery to the visitor in the most innovative way: instead of isolating the jewellery in sections devoted to each author as has been the practice on numerous occasions, the works are grouped together in thematic areas, those inspired by vegetation for example. The display consists of 69 pieces of jewellery created by the leading jewellers in European modernism: René Lalique, Georges Fouquet, Léopold Gautrait, Lucien Gaillard, Henri Vever, Lluís Masriera Rosés, Paco Durrio, Manolo Hugué, Philippe Wolfers and Wilhelm L. von Cranach. The works belong to both public and private collections from all over Europe: France, Belgium, Germany, Austria and Spain, among other countries. - From Millet to Matisse. French painting of the 19th and 20th centuries. Kelvingrove Art Gallery Collection, Glasgow (from February to April 2005). The Kelvingrove (Glasgow) Art Gallery's collection of French painting presents the public with a fascinating, almost priceless vision of the most outstanding styles and genres which characterize the history of French art from the middle of the 19th century to the beginning of the 20th. The exhibition brings together nearly 70 works by more than 40 prestigious masters of French painting, such as Bonnard, Braque, Paul Cézanne, Gauguin, Van Gogh, Matisse, Monet, Picasso, Pissarro, Renoir and Seurat. All of the works belong to the collections of the Kelvingrove Art Gallery, one of the 11 significant institutions that make up the Glasgow Museums and which possesses the most important municipal collection in all Britain. - 20 Years of Collecting: a future vision (from May to July 2005). In celebration of its twentieth anniversary, ”la Caixa” Foundation presents a new exhibition of a collection whose unique feature is to bring together a selection of works which have not yet been exhibited publicly, such as the Rayzor installation by James Turrell and a host of significant recent acquisitions. - Shoji Ueda (from August to October 2005). ”la Caixa” Foundation presents the first significant retrospective dedicated to the photographer Shoji Ueda (1913-2000) to be organized outside Japan, his country of birth. Ueda is considered one of the most outstanding photographers in the history of Japanese photography. The exhibition, mounted in conjunction with the Musée de l'Elysée in Lausanne, presents over 150 original photographs, all of them black and white.www.fundacio.lacaixa.es